General Electric's credit card unit, Synchrony Financial, made a muted debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday as investors remained ambivalent about the chances of a consumer-led U.S. economic recovery.

Synchrony, the largest provider of private-label credit cards in the United States, raised $2.88 billion in the biggest U.S. initial public offering of the year so far.

The share sale is part of GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt's plan to exit the North American retail finance sector and slim down GE Capital, whose problems during the financial crisis threatened to bring down the whole company.

GE retains a stake of about 85 percent in Synchrony.

"We continue to target completing our exit in late 2015," Immelt said in a statement.

Synchrony's shares touched a high of $23.22 before slipping to a low of $22.60, just below the offer price of $23 per share. At $23, which is where the shares closed on Thursday, the company is valued at about $19 billion.

"This is a credit company that is leveraged to retail spending and this season, retailers were complaining about lackluster consumer activity," Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of BMO Private Bank in Chicago told Reuters.

"So I think it's a combination of tepid recovery in retail and investor temperament right now," he said. "From a macro-perspective there is no reason why a company like this can't thrive."

Almost a third of Stamford-based Synchrony's loans fall into the subprime category, compared with only about 18 percent in Discover Financial Services' personal credit card business.